Tuesday, January 31, 2012

A childhood friend who became tour operator in Bali (Indonesia) once faced his biggest customer complaint after a week of continuous rain. Every little imperfection started to bother a group of tourists. The rain and lack of sun had a direct negative impact on the minds and feelings of his visitors, he found out. This was reinforced by the fact that they had come to Bali expecting nice weather.

Tea leaves and tea drinkers are also influenced by the sun! Without sufficient sun, tea leaves don't grow healthily. They absorb too much water and the brew looses clarity and concentration.

Even the pictures look much better with sun than without! The leaves of this luanze (qingxin) Oolong look a vivid and deep green. They were harvested by hand on May 6, 2011, on Qi Lai mountain, at an elevation of 2200 meters.

The pure, flowery and fresh fragrances of the dry leaves carry a light sweetness. The size of the leaves is a little bit smaller than usual for Oolong coming from such a high plantation. The harvest had to happen early, because rain was coming.

The oxidation is on the light side and this gives this Oolong a strong cooling effect that was particularly welcome this day on the white beach of Kenting.

This High Mountain Oolong delivers the finest fragrances with a sweet lingering sweetness and lots of power. Drinking on this beach means missing some of the detailed smells. But, on the other hand, the connection with the energy of the sun is felt much more intensely, inside out.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

During the Qing dynasty, the Dragon was the symbol for the emperor. The Dragon represents more than just a very powerful, mythical animal. Very adaptable, the dragon can swim, walk and fly. And like the emperor, the dragon is a link between Earth and Heaven. He connects men with the spiritual forces.

From there, we can see a more modern interpretation of the symbolism of the Dragon: creativity! Each time we aim for doing things differently, that we innovate, that we add beauty to our daily lives, we are rising like a dragon. The Chinese dragon isn't bad or good. It's more what we do with him. But one thing is certain: dragons and creative change generate lots of energy.

Tea can be a place to start unleashing the dragon in you. This beverage is also a connection between body and mind. The water and nutrients it contains nourish the body, and its essence fulfills the mind. It can transport us in space and time (to plantations and/or our memories). Buddhist monks even find a spiritual, zen experience in drinking tea!

Brewing tea is an exercise of creativity, because it requires from us that we adapt our vessel, cups, presentation (Cha Xi) and our technique to the tea and mood we want to express.

So, my wish for this year of the Dragon is that your tea satisfy both your body and mind. And one way to do that, I think, is to be creative!

(PS: While gathering my thoughts about this article, I remembered that I received this verse from Luke 4:4 for my confirmation: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." I find this spiritual meaning nicely fitting as it shows that we need both material and spiritual energies!)

Monday, January 16, 2012

Next week will mark the beginning of the Lunar New Year of the Dragon. Taiwan (and China) will have a whole week of holiday! (So, I won't be able to process your orders during that time.) In the middle of winter, we'll be celebrating the arrival of spring, happiness and fortune.

One way to do this is with a very special tea. I've heard lots of Taiwanese tea lovers, farmers or tea sellers tell me that they keep a unique tea in a jar and that they only open it once a year during Chinese New Year. Depending on their preference, it can be puerh, Baozhong, Wu Yi Yan Cha, Oriental Beauty or Hung Shui Oolong...

There are 2 characteristics that set these old Oolongs apart from the old Oolongs that can be found in stores on the island: the high quality of the leaves and a roasting that has faded away. In stores, what we find are mostly left overs, unsold leaves that probably were just average ; and they were roasted frequently, often too much. An collector's aged Oolong, on the other hand, was chosen for its concentration of flavors, how well it was crafted and aging potential. Once stored in a jar, it doesn't have to be roasted again and won't.

A tea lover's aged Oolongs retains several essential qualities:
- Purity: the leaves are all from the same batch and they have been stored in a clean place,
- Freshness: the leaves keep their elasticity and become green again as they unfold. Most importantly, the tea still has a 'green', fresh taste in the aftertaste.
- Mellow: the tea feels light, sweet and well balanced.

On top of that, aged Oolongs develop extraordinary fine aromas and deep fragrances (wood, incense, raspberry...) that we don't find in young teas. And they connect the present with the past with such grace and energy!

My recommendation is to start to age your own Oolong as early as possible!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

I kept this Cha Xi as simple as possible. A big black fabric is my Cha Bu and lets each accessory stand out. Everything is clean and has a purpose.

In this time of New Year resolutions, we may wonder what new teas and tastes 2012 will bring us. My grandfather reminds me that, in life, every one of us can't receive more than what we give. So, to receive a lot, we should first learn to give. In tea, the same rule applies. High quality teas made with care and love yield more pleasure than mass produced leaves. And the more you learn and understand tea, the better you are likely to brew it. The study of tea and history is one that can yield great rewards.

On this day, for instance, I felt like drinking my 2011 spring Hung Shui Oolong from Shan Lin Shi and had started a charcoal fire in my brazier. Then I realized that I had very little of that tea left in my little porcelain jar. And a lot of it was crushed. (From the picture, you can see the spent leaves). This is typical of what happens when you arrive at the end of your tea pack. At first, I thought these few leaves are no worth brewing in this setting, but I quickly change my mind.

These remaining leaves and bits had spent several weeks in this porcelain jar. This allowed the Oolong to refine and mellow. The vivid fragrances were magnified and so tempting. Also, I remembered that Teaparker often repeated this saying by an ancient tea master: "Qi fen cha, san fen mo", meaning '70% leaf, 30% powder'. This is the right balance to brew Oolong Chaoshan style.

It may surprise us today that ancient experts would crush their leaves. Tea dust is what tea bags are made of! Brewing whole leaves helps reduce astringency and bitterness. So, why would a tea master crush his tea on purpose?

In Chao Shan, they also insisted on top tea quality. Wu Yi teas were exported to Europe, the USA and cost a lot of money. So, to reduce the cost of a brew, they used very small teapots. But Wu Yi cultivars have big and hard leaves that are not suitable to rolling like Taiwanese Oolongs. Their dry leaves take quite a lot of volume and would quickly fill the teapot. The taste would be too light for this kind of tea. So, to pack more tea inside and obtain a stronger taste, they found that adding 30% of crushed tea bits achieved the best results.

Broken tea leaves release their aromas faster than whole leaves. So, the key success factor for this method is to use high quality leaves that don't contain nasty astringency or lasting bitterness. This was the case for the Wu Yi teas brewed in Chao Shan and it is the case with my Oolong.

So, I used my smallest zhuni teapot to brew this Hung Shui Oolong. Even so, the open leaves barely filled a third of the teapot. I compensated this fact with a longer brewing time. (And I poured the hot water very slowly, since the broken leaves didn't need to be unfurled much.)

Hung Shui Oolong is quite different in character than Wu Yi Oolong. High mountain Hung Shui Oolong stands even further apart. The high elevation produces a tea with a lighter oxidation where the cooling, fresh feeling is more present. It doesn't require the same concentration level as Wu Yi Oolongs, I feel. With this method and these leaves, this brew already got a much stronger, thicker body. But it remained sweet, not bitter. And the Cha qi in the first brew felt more than powerful.

Of course, with so few leaves and many of them broken, the tea got exhausted faster. Still, even the third and last brew was very pleasant. The tea felt even better, because I had a very good conscience: I had treated this tea with respect and brewed even the last broken bit. And this very small amount of Oolong had given me 3 balanced and thick brews filled with refined aromas.

Tea is amazing! Sometimes, with the right understanding and tea, the less you have and the more can get out of it!

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About Me

My name is Stéphane Erler. I live in Taiwan since 1996 and have been studying tea with Teaparker. He's a worldwide tea expert and author of over 30 tea books. The study of tea isn't just theoretical, but it's also rooted in daily practice. It's a path of continuous improvement. As my brewing technique improves I get access to better teas and better accessories. These things go hand in hand. My blog documents my learning since 2004. And I have set up an online tea boutique with my selection of top quality teas, accessories and tea culture.